Jim Mallinder, Northampton's head coach, said his team were "not the finished article" after their 33-20 win against the Scarlets at Franklin's Gardens won Group D of the EDF Energy Cup and put them into the semi-finals. He could equally have been talking about the wing Chris Ashton, the former Wigan league player who scored two tries against the Welsh region but also struggled in defence.

Ashton, 21, who scored 39 tries in 25 matches last season - when Saints ran away with the National League One title - missed the Scarlets centre Regan King badly for the visitors' first try. "He is growing and scoring tries but he's still got things to work on in his game and he knows that," said Mallinder. "But he knows where the tryline is and he's always dangerous."

Stephen Myler, who comes from a famous Widnes dynasty, was the man of the matchafter a confident display at fly-half. The 24-year-old kicked 13 points and made a try-saving tackle on the Scarlets' former Australia No8 David Lyons when the match was still in the balance.

Asked about his two young converts, Mallinder said: "I don't really want to pick those two out because there were some outstanding contributions from everyone. We've come up from the first division and know we have a lot of work to do as a team but to qualify against a very strong Scarlets side is good. It puts us through to a semi-final, which will be a big game, a big atmosphere, and this is what a club like this deserves. It's a big club and it should be moving places."

Given the weakened teams often fielded by Guinness Premiership clubs, some might argue that the EDF is a de facto under-23 tournament already. But after Saracens had won 24-22 at Bristol, missing out on a semi-final place because of Northampton's try-scoring bonus point, their head coach, Eddie Jones, reiterated his call for the event to be run primarily for the benefit of young players.

"If the EDF have any money left over during this credit crunch then I think they should invest it in an under-23 competition, with perhaps five over-age players in the match-day squad," said Jones. "It would be so important not just for us but also for England rugby and I'm sure the Welsh clubs would like it too. You need regular competitions for these young guys. Perhaps they could be played midweek."

Yesterday Harlequins beat Worcester 27-14 at Sixways. Chris Robshaw, Seb Stegmann and Tosh Masson scored tries for Quins and Chris Malone kicked two conversions and two penalties. The former All Black fly-half Nick Evans, back from a knee injury suffered on the opening day of the season, also kicked a conversion. Worcester's flankers, Jake Abbott and Pat Sanderson, scored tries which were converted by Matthew Jones. The match was a dead rubber because of previous results in Group C.